


Allergic

by ihatethatchick



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: AU: No Arrowverse, F/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-06 17:14:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 17,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11040660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihatethatchick/pseuds/ihatethatchick
Summary: Just a little soulmate AU idea I'm putting out there as thanks to all the great Olicity authors out there.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My laptop is broken so I am finger-pecking on my iPad directly onto the site here, but I have wanted to jump back into fanfic for so long I am not taking the time to second guess myself.

Felicity came to slowly and reluctantly. Her throats and thigh ached, leaving no room in her mind to even temporarily forget last night's humiliation. She looked about the white hospital room until she spotted a clear plastic bag on the chair next to her, and in it her shoes, clothes, and book bag.

She reached for her possessions with a groan that turned into a grateful sigh when she spied her tablet. People tend to get light fingered around unconscious college students but she was happy to find everything where it belonged.

Of coarse that happiness didn't last long. Her notifications had blown up, and not in a good "Sequel to Farscape" announced way. She clicked on the first link with dread. It was titled "Allergy Goth Fights off Misguided "Saviors" at MIT" - and there was video. So much video. Two angles of it. Of her, fighting off her rescuers turned attackers, waiving her epi pen and fighting with the buttons of her jeans as she tried to signal that the adrenaline shot needed to go into a muscle, like her leg, in a rather unfortunately suggestive closed fist gesture.

Her humiliation was complete. It was everywhere, and while none of the articles had yet to call her by name, she knew it was just a matter of time. How many goth chicks with long black and purple hair went to MIT frat parties.

She groaned again, this time more dramatically, throwing a pillow over her face. She was going to have to call her mother. On the bright side Donna Smoak would be thrilled that her daughter was finally going to parties after breaking up with her useless boyfriend.

Felicity was pulled out of her pity party of one when two besuited men, one huge and dark, the other older and carrying a binder entered the room. They looked stern. And official. Like cops. Like cops come to arrest her after consuming, all be it unwittingly, a pot brownie. Filled with pot. Pot and nuts.

Her suspicions seemed to be realized when they unceremoniously began questioning her.

"Do you do drugs frequently  
Have you ever tried anything harder than marijuana?  
You are under age, what were you doing at a party that served alcohol?  
Do you go to a lot of frat parties?"

Felicity reigned in her panic, struggling to explain her actions, no she didn't do drugs; didn't even know the brownie was spiked till after the ambulance arrived; she wasn't a partier, had just had a recent break-up and wanted to, y'know take her mind off stuff. It wasn't until long after the questions had turned personal that she began to worry about more than the state of her scholarship.

Yes, she was from Vegas, daughter of a single mother and recipient of a dream scholarship to her dream university. No, she hadn't registered in the Soulmate database yet, but she was only 19 with a college deferment. She had two months left before her MBA and was thinking of maybe continuing for a doctorate.

"Alright, Ms. Smoak, we've heard enough. The nurse will be in soon with your discharge papers."

"Um, OK. Thanks for stopping by?" She questioned, a bit unnerved by the entire interaction. She wasn't scared until she found them waiting for her in front of a dark sedan when she exited the hospital.

"Look, I don't know what you want from me but I'm just a poor college student that ate the wrong delicious treat! I'm not a criminal, you should be arresting the douchebros at Gamma Omega Gamma! It was their pot brownie!"

"We're not here to arrest you, Ms. Smoak. We are simply escorting you to an important engagement," the big, dark one said reasurringly, his first words of the day. He sounded unthreatening, even as he maneuvered her into the back seat of the car, stepping into the drivers seat himself. She looked at stern-faced binder clucher next to her. Ok, clearly the driver. was Nice Cop.

It didn't occur to her that they weren't cops at all til they arrived at their destination. Or the first leg of it, as they were at a private airstrip. The small luxury jet did not look at all official. The tail side exclaimed its name in large green letters, The Queen's Gambit II. What kind of government agency could afforded one private jet, much less two?

"I am not getting on that thing. Nah-uh, no way, nope. I am leaving and!!" She was cut off as Good Cop, not so good, and apparently not a cop, steered her to the stairs, more forcefully than he had at the car.

"We aren't going to hurt you Ms. Sm-" he began before she interrupted with growing hysteria, "That's what someone says just before they hurt you! Help! I'm being kidnapped!

"You are not being kidnapped." Of course by his time they were already in the cabin of the plane and she watched with wide eyes as her KIDNAPPERS closed the door.

"Who are you? Who are you really? You're not cops!"

"My name is John Diggle and this is my associate Owen Mull, and you are right. We aren't cops, but we're not bad guys either. We're just escorting you to an important meeting." He spoke in a soothing manner but Felicity was in no way soothed.

"So important that you have to kidnap me to get there?" Which was effectively the end of the discussion, on their end at least because no matter how much Felicity badgered them they refused to answer her questions.

Not when to they disembarked from the plane, not when they not quite shoved her into a new dark town car, not as they drove silently to a steel gate and entered what looked like a frilling compound leading up to a Tudor mansion. No other word for it, Felicity thought, an honest to google mansion.

After spending the majority of the flight and the drive up badgering her captors with questions, she fell silent gazing up at the stately manor house. Something felt...off. Important. "Ominous..." she spoke aloud.

"Only if you look at it that way, Ms. Smoak" Good Cop, or John Diggle as he so improbably named himself said. John Diggle. Sounded like a porn name

Felicity was led through expensive and exquisite rooms to a well appointed study where she joined a well appointed woman sitting gracefully on a leather couch. Mr. Diggle lead her to a club chair in matching leather across from the woman and quietly left the room.

"I bet you wonder what I gathered you here for today? Is that what your going to ask? 'Cause that looks like what you were going to ask" Felicity blurted, unable to help herself.

"I suppose it was, Felicity. May I call you Felicity?" The woman asked before contuing without waiting for an answer. "I hear you are a genius. Top of your class at MIT, IQ of 170, matriculating at 16 on a full ride scholarship. That is a very impressive feat."

"You don't sound impressed" Felicity mumbled to herself, her hackles raised.

If the woman heard her she deigned not to react, gesturing to a blue folder by her side. "It says here you applied for a job at Queen Consolidated after graduation. Why is that?"

The odd question gave Felicity pause, and she took a moment to look, really look at the woman. Middle years with perfectly styled blonde hair and expensive jewelry. She didn't look like a kidnapper. And did kidnappers flatter you with your resume?

"I applied at a lot of jobs."

When the woman remained quiet Felicity began fidgeting, unable to stop herself from filling the silence,"they have a promising cyber security department, that's my specialty, but Palmer Tech has a better outreach for women in STEM. I haven't made up my mind...I have two months til graduation to decide." She continued defensively. Something about this woman's stately poise had her off kilter. Hell, everything about his whole surreal day had her off kilter and it wasn't yet three in the afternoon.

"Ok, so you know everything about me, mind sharing with the rest of the class? Why the hell am I here? Why did you have me kidnapped?"

"Oh, dear, that wasn't the impression I meant to make, I sincerely apologize for the rather abrupt nature of our meeting." She sounded conciliatory but Felicity knew condescension when she heard it.

"What exactly are we meeting about? Why is so damn important that you "didn't kidnap" me to get me here?" Felicity used sarcastic air quotes to punctuate the absurdity of her captor's continued argument that she hadn't been kidnapped.

"Why haven't you Registered, Felicity?"

She heard the capital R in the woman's voice, and thought back to the strangely personal nature of the questioning when she still thought she was being interviewed by cops about the ingestion of a small amount of marijuana earlier in the day. A sudden cold dread ran down her limbs.

"Who are you? Why do you care about me joining the Soulmark Registry?!"

"My name is Moira Queen."

Felicity experienced a brief moment of stunned relief before blurting out "You have got to be kidding me? Moira Queen, wife of Queen Consolidared CEO Robert Queen? This is how you perform job interviews? You're going to get sued out of existence!"

Felicity gathered her book bag, preparing to stand and get out of this entirely strange meeting, "really, all the planes and guys in suits and mystery..." she trailed off when Mrs. Queen held out a staying hand and pushed a button on the table to her left. Felicity could hear a faint buzzer go off in the next room.

"Oh, I could wish this meeting were business in nature, Felicity, ah here he is" she trailed off as the single most handsome man Felicity had ever seen walked into the room. His looks were spoiled somewhat by the sullen look on his face. He was followed by QC's CEO, Robert Queen himself.

And that ominous feeling from before multiplied a thousand times. She thought back, strangely enough, to the start of her day, so long ago now. To the internet video of a drunk frat boy unbuttoning her jeans to stick an injection in her ass that was supposed to go in her thigh. To her exposed hipbone. Or rather what was ON her exposed hipbone.

She was suddenly filled with a different type of dread.

" I would like to introduce my husband Robert and our son Oliver."

She paused dramatically, and Felicity just knew what she was going to say but sat mutely and let it happen.

"Oliver, it seems, is your soulmate."

The sentence hung there, resounding across the room and Felicity's brain for a solid minute, the longest of her life. The boy, or maybe man, he looked older than her, Oliver, grimaced at her unhappily.

"No no no no, I'm not ready for this, this is some kind of mistake, I'm not Oliver, Oliver Queen's soulmate" she continued to ramble until Robert Queen, speaking for the first time shushed her up, "Now I understand this is sudden, and perhaps not" he looked at her critically, her dyed black and purple hair, multiple piercings, yesterday's makeup smudged and wearing, "ideal... but your mother has been notified and negotiations should begin shortly."

"My mother!" Felicity exclaimed, horrified. "You told my mother? My mother thinks my soulmate is a billionaire?!"

It was official. This was the worst day of her life.

 

***************************************

So unbeta'd and off the cuff, and I don't know if I will continue, but I wanted to give something back to the fandom that has given me so much.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that was an outpouring of support I did not expect. Super embarrassed about all the typos, but I tried to go back and fix them. Again, not easy typing this on my iPad.

She didn't like him.

Oliver Queen.

He looked smug. Like some smug rich guy, in his smug rich guy polo shirt and cargo shorts. Like he couldn't dress up? He just sat there staring at her in his tight polo, his arms crossed in front of him. Was he flexing? Probably. His biceps were huge. Smug rich guys didn't have such big muscles, Felicity grumbled to herself silently.

"What?" She asked finally.

"So, did Halloween come and you just committed, or?" He gestured to her hair, her clothes.

Felicity bristled, then leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "You know you're wearing a mullet, right? Like, in public, where people can see you?"

He shifted defensively and tucked his hair behind his ear. "I'm growing it out."

And that ended her conversation with Oliver Queen. Her soulmate. Supposedly. She had yet to see evidence. He had only smirked when she asked him to show it to her. Ok, it had come out sounding a bit more suggestive than she pictured in her head. But still, she had only the Queens word to go on at this point.

Felicity glanced over at the Queens, having some sort of silent conversation on the other side of the study. They didn't look happy. She snorted. Join the party.

As if summoned, the door burst open and Donna Smoak flew through it, wearing a skin tight yellow dress and dragging a hot pink suitcase behind her.

"Bunny! Oh, Felicity, honey, I'm so happy for you! You found your soulmate! And he lives HERE!"

Felicity fought off a cringe. She sometimes struggled with her adolescent embarrassment of her mother, but she refused to show that in front of the Queens and their snooty son. She was proud of her little family.

She stood to allow herself to be engulfed in and enthusiastic hug. He mother cooed and made sounds of joy, trying to bounce in her ultra high heels.

Oliver Queen was staring at her with wide eyes, his parents standing silent and regal as if posing for a portrait. He had a stupidly photogenic family.

Donna straightened her back and smoothed her palms down her very short skirt, moving nervously towards them. "You must be Robert and Moira" she rushed at them with extended hand.

"Ms. Smoak, a pleasure to meet you." They intoned in unison. A united front again her mother's big sloppy hand shakes.

"And you must be Oliver!" Donna squeeled, rushing toward the still seated boy with arms outstretched. He shot a glance at her before rising to accept her mother's tight embrace.

He gave her another look she couldn't interpret before stepping back, joining his parents.

"So, let us see it!" Donna exclaimed, nearly mirroring Felicity's own words from earlier. She gestured to her side, indicating the spot on her hip that Felicity's soulmate mark was located.

"Actually, before we begin, we would like your assurances to keep these...discussions confidential." Moira Queen stepped forward, the blue folder from earlier in her hand.

"The very personal and private nature of this situation requires a certain amount of...discretion." From the folder she produced a pair of white documents that she handed Felicity and her mother.

They exchanged a knowing glance. No concessions then. If they thought she and her mother were dumb hicks ready to sign anything put in front of them they had another thing coming. Donna Smoak didn't spend her life conning high rollers out of tips without being able to read people.

"Of course. Discretion. And we, of course, expect the same. Can i have a few minutes alone with my daughter? We have SO much to discuss, girls stuff and all" Donna gushed.

Felicity breathed an invisible sigh of relief. Her mother believed in soulmates, truly believed, but she wasn't about to let Felicity sign her life away to these rich standoffish jerks. Wait til she hears about the not-quite kidnapping. Felicity smiled at her mother with pride.

Yeah, totally over that teenage embarrassment. No matter the impression her tight dresses and unbridled enthusiasm left on other people, Donna Smoak always had her back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, these chapters are necessarily short due to the device I'm using to tap them out, but I want to strike while the iron is hot. Again, no beta pecking it out on my iPad, so if you spot any typos, I wouldn't be offended if you point them out.

Feleicity paged through the document again, looking for hidden clauses or traps, but it appeared to be a standard confidentially agreement with all parties agreeing to not disclose the nature of her and Oliver's relationship. Easy enough considering they didn't have one.

"Oh, put that away, honey, you're not signing anything." Her mother flicked the documents onto the coffee table.

"It's just a standard non-disclosure form. I signed one just like it when I interned for Kord Industries last summer."

"One rule one of contracts is never sign them. Remember what happened to Lucille? She signed a couple papers for her son and next thing you know he'd sold her house and sent her to a nursing home. Awful place."

"Yeah, he was the worst," Felicity sighed. "Besides, I have no intention of signing anything. Just looking for dirty tricks."

"Honey, this is your soulmate! The love of your life! No one is trying to trick you!"

"Just like no one kidnapped me?" Felicity grumbled.

"Oh, hush, that was so romantic, absconded away by your soulmate to meet for the first time...imagine the stories you'll tell your grandkids! Can't you be happy about this? Look at this place, it's so...big! Your soulmate is a billionaire!"

"Yeah, I really, really noticed. Besides, this doesn't feel romantic, Mom. Who brings legal documents to a romantic meet and greet?"

"I did," Donna said reaching into her oversized bag to pull out a sheet of paper, handing it to Felicity.

"What is this? Felicity Smoak and her soulmate will share 50% of all life, love, and properties? Is this my soulmate agreement? Mom, you printed this off Legal Zoom!"

"Family like this, all that money, the've had his prenup written since he was in diapers." Donna shrugged. "Just protecting my baby."

Felicity sighed and leaned into her mom for a hug. This situation was a bit more complicated than a one page fill in the blanks form though. The Queen family had a lot to protect. And they were clearly on the offensive.

"What we need is a little research. As long as I've got an internet connection we've got all we need." She told her mother confidently.

Half an hour later she didn't feel any better though.

Oliver Queen was an entitled jerk. Perusing the internet articles about him, Felicity was ready to sign the agreement and sneak out the back door.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to personally thank everyone who posted encouragement for me to continue. Without your support I would not be posting this chapter this early.

Hours later Felicity is showered and changed. Not into the hot pink party dress her mother had pushed for, but the black pants and bright red button up she had reluctantly produced from her suitcase with a pout. They were invited to a family dinner hosted by the Queen's and Felicity needed her armor. A fresh coat of black eyeliner and matte red lipstick completed her look and bolstered her courage.

Almost. After a reluctant moment staring in the mirror, Felicity raised the hem of her shirt and stared at her soulmate mark. She had avoided doing so in the shower, hesitant to even touch it as she soaped up. It looked the same. Did it feel the same? She poked it defiantly, just to prove she could.

"OK, Mom, once more into the breach," she announced.

"Stop being so...you. We're just having dinner, honey. A nice family dinner with your soulmate. Oh, I will never get tired of saying that! Your soulmate!.

A maid, as in a woman wearing an actual maid's uniform like in a fancy hotel or period drama, led them to a formal dining room. Did that mean they had an informal dining room? How many dining rooms did one house need?

They joined the Queens, Robert and Moira, Oliver, dressed in a blue button up that in no way set off the vivid blue of his eyes, greeted them, along with a tiny brunette teenager positively vibrating with excitement. Oliver's fifteen year old sister, Thea, her research told her. She shared the same mole on her lip as her mother, matching the one peeking through Oliver's five o'clock shadow. He needed to shave. He looked stupid with that scruff, Felicity lied to herself.

"Oh my god, your soulmate has a nose ring! You must dying of embarrassment, Ollie!" Thea squealed. Despite the harshness of her words she sprang into Felicity's not quite ready arms. "I can't believe this is happening! I'm sooooo happy for you, but not really 'cause you have so much work ahead of you, Ollie's a mess, but its cool 'cause not really really and now you can be together forever!"

"Um. Hi. I'm Felicity. You must be Thea."

"Yes! And you're Mrs. Smoak! So glad to meet you!" Donna greeted Thea's hug with equal enthusiasm, correcting, "Ms. Smoak, but call me Donna."

"Oh." Thea threw her mother a surreptitious glance, "OK. Ms. Smoak. Donna. Isn't this exciting!"

"That's quite enough, Thea, why don't we sit and enjoy our meal?" Moira corralled them to their seats at the long formal table, festooned with expensive settings and cloth napkins. Felicity sat next to her mother, across from Oliver. He gave her a tight smile, his first since she met him a few hours and a thousand years ago. This dinner was going to be an ordeal.

And it was. Tense with getting-to-know-you chit chat that always turned awkward. Topics like Donna's work as a cocktail waitress and the whereabouts of her father father lead to heavy silences, and shifting the conversations to Oliver's history did not improve the situation. He had just graduated in December with his MBA in business from Stanford, which would have been an impressive accomplishment if it hadn't been his fourth ivy league school in six years. He was now entering his second month at the family company. The family multi-billion dollar international conglomeration, in the business operations department. As VP.

"You just graduated and you are a vice president in business operations?" Felicity asked, incredulous.

"Junior Vice President," He said defensively.

"Queen Consolidated is a family company and Oliver has been preparing for his position his entire life." Robert Queen said confidently.

Felicity glanced at Oliver. He relaxed, validated by his father's defense. She wondered what he really thought about his accomplishments. He was twenty-three, nearly twenty-four and his entry level job was upper management in one of the largest and most successful technology and manufacturing corporations in America. A high powered dream position brilliant and ambitious business people spent a lifetime working to achieve. Felicity wondered how she would feel, being handed that much responsibility.

"Moira will be taking you to the Queen building downtown to tour the facility you will be working at tomorrow."

Felicity felt her eyes try to fall out of her face at the sheer GALL of that statement. Donna grasped her thigh under the table in an attempt to corral her but she couldn't let that kind of assumption stand undisputed.

"I have yet to decide where I will be working after graduation, Mr. Queen." She said with as much restraint as she could muster.

He looked at her in real shock. "You'll be working for us. With your soulmate. Where you belong, dear."

The table erupted.

And that was the end of dinner.

*  
Moira Queen was born to be a diplomat. She should be deployed to the middle east, thought Felicity as she dressed in the same outfit she wore yesterday with a perverse sense of oppositional defiance. She would be chaperoning Felicty for the grand tour she found herself unable to decline, after spending a night in the mansion she found herself unable to leave. Not that she was being detained against her will. Moira had manipulated her so seamlessly it had almost felt like Felicity's idea to stay and visit QC's flagship capitol building. It was beyond frustrating and, frankly, terrifying for the future. She made it seam all so sensible!

Oliver and his father had already left for the day when they took a separate towncar, just Moira Queen and herself. It seemed to be a theme. At no time in the past two days had Felicity spent a single moment alone with Oliver. His room was apparently in a separate wing of Queen Manor, and that was just another issue troubling her - the shear size and scope of the Queen's existence. Manor houses with wings, plural, sixty story glass and steel buildings with their name emblazed on the side. It made her feel small, her life inconsequential. She had grown up in a succession of two bedroom apartments in the Las Vegas valley, attended a small Jewish Academy on scholarship, graduated just before her sixteenth birthday and spent the last four years is constant determined study to complete not one but two Masters degrees from the top technology school in America. She was not yet twenty and her life has always been one of determined trajectory with one goal - a life in science, coding and creating computer programs. These people were conquerors. She was a nerd. It felt like an unfair fight.

Soulmate family "negotiations" where an archaic tradition, mostly just an insignificant formality today. Many soulmates were foregoing the whole damn thing these days. 

Felicity had never given much thought to the process. Soulmates were the farthest thing from her mind. She felt young and outclassed, swept up in someone else's master plan.

The building was just as impressive as she pictured, modern and outfitted with the most cutting edge technology. She wanted to hug the servers, the work stations, the entire atmosphere of accomplishment. QC was at the forefront of technology, advancing science into a new and exciting future. The people working there were kind and deferential, but did not seem cowed my the presence of the company matriarch. They demonstrated their latest projects with pride and genuine excitement. She ached to be a part of that advancement.

Altogether, it was a wonderful experience, one she would have cherished under any other circumstance. She wanted to work here. To be a part of this.

Until Moira brought her to a small conference room, and the contract waiting for her. the shear size of it made her want to scream with frustration.

There were lawyers and pens and expectations. Moira stared, poised and confident in her victory, sure that she would sign her life away for a dream job in a dream company. 

Felicity burst into tears.

Ten minutes later she was alone in the room, her emotions almost under control, when Oliver slipped quietly into the room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks for all the wonderful commentary and encouragement. I feel a little self-conscious about the shortness of the chapters but its how the story wants to be told.

"I have a girlfriend."

Of all the opening volleys, that was the last thing she expected Oliver Queen to start with. I am a jerk-face jerkerson and I apologize for my family trying to control your life would have been nice, maybe. 

"What?" She sputtered, balling her fist with the mascara stained tissues at her side. "What what??"

His shoulders slumped, like he was releasing some long held tension. He slid into the chair opposite her. "I have a girlfriend. Or at least, I did. Until yesterday. I've been wanting to tell you that for two days."

Felicity sat silently gaping at him, at a loss for words. She didn't know how to feel about this, or if she should fee anything at all. Oliver looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time.

"It was...we weren't going to stay together, not for much longer anyway. Not really. It was complicated. I loved her, but..." He shrugged, trailing off.

"So you have me kidnapped, brought here, to your house, to your company, mapped out my future, my rights, my WORTH in this THOUSAND page document, annotated and enumerated down to the last contingency, only to tell me that you love some other girl?!"

""No, no, not like that, that's not what I...I'm not in love. Not now. With anyone." Oliver paused, clearly gauging her reaction. He leaned forward, staring hard into her eyes. "I don't know how to do this. I don't know if I want to do this." He looked guilty, and almost as miserable as Felicity felt. That feeling was back, somewhere inside her, something deep - she had called it ominous, but that wasn't really the word. Momentous, maybe.

"I don't know if I want to do this either." Felicity took a long breath and exhaled loudly. This was progress. "I just broke up with my boyfriend. A few weeks ago. He was a cheater"

Oliver cringed, and she thought about what she said in light of his confession that he had a girlfriend not twenty-four hours ago.

"Not like cheater, like he cheated on me. He cheated. From me. He stole my work and tried to pass it off as his. I found out, and it didn't go so well for him. Went down in flames, actually." She barely restrained herself from admitting just how badly it went for Cooper, and just what she did in retaliation. She was sure he would recover his reputation, someday. Maybe. Maybe even find his way off the no-fly list.

"I just wanted you to know I wasn't waiting for you. If that's what you thought."

"Uh, no, yeah, that...good. I. I didn't. Wait. Wait for you, either," his voice got higher the longer he stumbled over his words.

She thought back to all those gossip sites, Ollie Queen and his bevvy of babes. "Yeah, I never suspected."

"So your girlfriend, you ex-girlfriend. Did you tell her? About me?"

"No." He said definitively.

"Your parents make you sign a confidentiality agreement too?" She asked lightly.

"Ah, but you didn't sign it."

"No. And I'm not about to sign anything. In fact, I think its about time I returned to school. I've had enough of contracts and soulmates, no offense."

Oliver nodded absently. "None taken."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of this encouragement is making my head spin. I know I haven't answered anyone individually, but I assure you I've read and appreciated every single one of the comments here. I've got quite a lot done the past day or two because it is my day off, but will try to keep the pace up as much as I can. I intend to finish this fic and am very much enjoying the process as well as the interaction.

So for the second time in her life, Felicity flew on a private jet, this time in considerable more comfort. There was fresh fruit and numerous small luxuries like heated towels and chairs that fully reclined. They stopped in Vegas to drop a teary-eyed Donna off with promises of phone calls and skype sessions. She arrived in Cambridge well after midnight, to her tiny dorm room and scattered work station, and threw herself down on her bed.

Nothing was decided, but she felt that she had come to some unspoken understanding with Oliver. Not a solid no, just a pause button. She welcomed the fresh hell of her last semester at MIT, as haunted looking seniors threw themselves into projects and thesis papers. Felicity had laid most of the groundwork for her own final projects, and the next few weeks flew by with obsessive testing and tweaking, getting the codes to bend to her will. She told no one of her soulmate discovery; her classmates were fixated on their own work and she had few friends left after the whole Cooper debacle. She had few friends before the his betrayal, in all honesty, but humiliating the boy who had wronged her so very thoroughly and publicly tended intimidated the people she did use to associate with. She didn't miss them that much. Felicity had always connected with computers far more readily than people. They were predictable, and, if you knew how to work them, reliable.

One thing her very public vengeance did improve was her professional prospects. Tech loved few things more than a socially disenfranchised genius. She got an offer from Kord Industries, where she had interned for several months the past summer, and Palmer Tech stepped up their game, even offered to fly her out to corporate headquarters for a personal tour. She declined, too busy searching for bugs or inconsistencies in her code. This program was her baby, and if she completed it to perfection she had plans to possibly take it to market.

It was the most comprehensive security program she could imagine, far beyond anything out there today and she owned it completely. Taking a corporate job meant your work was company property. She was flirting with the idea of selling it and starting her own company. But she was also entertaining the idea of continuing on at MIT for her doctorate.

The concept of her own startup was particularly terrifying in a sea of scary choices though. Starting a business just shy of her twentieth birthday, of being on her own without a major corporation to provide security and structure was maybe not something she was prepared for. Felicity wanted to get several years corporate experience, get the feel for how a tech business works before she started her own. That was always the plan, but now?

Now QC and all that it entailed hung over her head. Not that she had heard anything from them. They didn't even extend a firm job offer from the application she submitted before her ill fated meet and greet with a pot brownie had upended her life and sent her into a mental tailspin. The silence had her worried and confused. Had her conversation with Oliver been the end of it? It didn't seem terribly likely that Moira Queen had forgotten about her. The epic prenup of doom sat on her dresser as reminder of that.

Then one week before graduation Felicity spied a familiar face watching her from the square outside the library. She marched angrily up to John Diggle, poking him in the chest, "You! Are you following me? I thought the Queens got my message, I'm not interested in any novel length contracts or a lifetime in servitude to their company or their son!"

"Ms. Smoak," He says, cupping her aggressively stabbing hand against his chest to quell her poking finger, "Please. I'd just like to talk to you. A nice, casual conversation, somewhere inside, a bit more private." He looks around pointedly at the crowded square. No one was paying them any mind, but she would rather not have this argument in public.

They walked to one of the dozens of coffee shops surrounding the university and settled into a booth in the back. "Well?" She asks, eyebrows raised. "What wonderful gifts have my beloved inlaws brought me now? I hope its another legal document. You know how I love those."

"Actually, it is." And he produced a small sheaf of papers from his case. Didn't even look a little bit ashamed of himself. "Before you bite my head off, just look at it."

Felicity accepted the papers gingerly, as if they might burn her fingers, but didn't read them, staring at Mr. Diggle expectantly. He smiled, a genuine smile. "It's a standard employment contract. For one year, for a job, specifically the one you applied for, nothing else. Not a word has been altered from the one every Information and Security Analyst III, whatever that is, signs. You'll find the compensation package generous, but not too generous as to arouse suspicion, and here," he handed her another piece of paper with a flourish,"is your sign on bonus."

It was a check for fifty thousand dollars. She nodded and tucked the employment contract and check into her bag between to her tablet and books.

"That's it? I half expected you to tear up the check and tell me you couldn't be bought."

"Oh! I hate it when movie characters do that! No one in real life is too proud for money. Anyway, signing bonuses are standard in tech. To cover moving expenses, pay down massive college debt, compensate for the work hours so long you might as well live in your cubicle. There's a reason Google's headquarters are called a campus."

"And here I thought you got a full ride on account of your genius intelect."

"Yeah, that's kinda misleading. Pays for tuition, not room and board, books, equipment, yada yada. Boston is expensive. Even with outside grants and scholarships I'm pretty deep in debt." She shrugged. "But I've offers. Lots. None for this much, though. Oops, I probably shouldn't have admitted that. Bad negotiating tactic."

"Speaking of negotiating, Oliver's birthday party is in two weeks and he'd like to formally invite you."

"No."

"He'll be relieved to hear that."

Felicity couldn't help but laugh. She didn't expect honesty from him. "I like you, Mr. Diggle. If that is your real name."

"Oh, it is. And my friends call me Dig."

"Dig it is, then."  
.  
"Look, Felicity, I've worked for the Queen family for three years, and I've seen the best and worst of that boy. And he's maturing into a real good man. Don't let his family or his past color your perception of him."

"He's twenty-four. Shouldn't he already be a man?" She deadpanned.

It was Dig's turn to laugh.

"I have a lot to think about Dig, and six days before I walk for graduation. I'll be in touch. No more surprise drop ins, OK?"

"Deal."

"Now, would you like some coffee? You're buying, moneybags."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello, this is probably my last update of the weekend. I thank every one of you for your kind words of encouragement, and I particularly appreciate the speculatory notes. I know what I want to accomplish, but getting there is going to be a journey and I would be grateful for your input.

Felicity left Boston on a Sunday with two suitcases and a carry-on. The majority of her clothes and possessions were left in the student exchange bin at her old dorm, per longstanding end of term tradition. She had relied on that box of abandoned clothing, books and knickknacks heavily as a poor undergraduate. Besides, it was time to change up her look. She had grown out of her teen rebellion phase a while ago and the black hair and retro 90's grunge had become something of crutch. The harsh look and facial piercings had shouted to the world that she was strong, would not apologize for her individuality or conform to Cambridge's tendency for conservative conformity.

But she was tired of the Manic Panic look. Same Felicity, new look.

Donna ran her fingers through her her hair in dismay. "We are going to have to strip this down to white to get all this black dye out, honey. We'll never get it to match your natural hair color"

"Well, why blonde, then? It's a good look. A great look."

Her mother stroked her own long blonde hair, clearly delighted. "Oh, I'm going to cry!"

"Please don't. OK, strip away, Mom. Wait that came out funny. Strip me, Mom. Wait, that was worse. Just, lets get to work."

She was inordinately pleased with the results. The blonde hair softened her features and brightened her face. She went with a softer color palate for her makeup and removed her nose ring. She considered the industrial bar bisecting her ear for a moment. She would keep it. She was going for a new look, not denying the person she was.

On her twentieth birthday her mother helped her pick out a new wardrobe, not much, just a few mix and match separates. Pencil skirts and button ups,a little conservative yet form fitting and stylish enough to be saved from frumpishness. She may have just discovered her personal style - it was youthful, professional; perfect for the boardroom and the...other rooms...

And there was the dilemma. Did she want to work in a boardroom? Did she want to work for a tech titan? Or move to silicon valley, surrounded by hundreds of startups to fight her way to the top at her own company? Or did she want to work at QC in close proximity to the man the universe had decided was made specifically for her?

Three days later Walter Steele made the decision for her.

Not personally. She had never met the man. But he was featured on the cover of Wired with an interview powerful enough to make up her mind. He discussed his modest upbringing, the struggles he faced in life and education, how he had worked his way up to CFO of Queen Consolidated twelve years ago and how, once there he had advocated to transform the company from its roots in industrial technology and manufacturing to become the modern tech powerhouse it was today. His personal story was inspiring but she was more-so impressed with his pioneering efforts in educating and mentoring underrepresented populations in both science and business. He had been a hero of hers for some time, but this article exemplified exactly why she had applied at QC in the first place. 

She thought of her tour there, of the people who seemed both happy and proud of their work. She wanted to be a part of that company. And maybe part of that longing could be attributed to her connection to her reluctant soulmate, but so what? The Queen family had demonstrated a willingness to step back and let her lead her own life, make her own choices. She could and would meet any challenge they threw her way.

Besides, she hardly thought of Oliver at all. OK, maybe the she still investigated him. A little. On his birthday. Just to check and see if he truly had left his youthful debauchery behind. His birthday party passed without a single red solo cup and spray tan in site, just a mix of young professionals enjoying drinks and dining in a relatively normal, if preternaturally attractive group. And she only knew that because he was so high profile that he was practically begging to be found on social media, if you knew where to look.

Or, y'know, if you designed your own search engine and infiltrated a few key firewalls.

Decision made, Felicity mustered her courage and called John Diggle. A ten days later she cashed the check and moved to Starling to start the next chapter of her life.

***

Her apartment was on the second floor of a four story converted office building close enough to downtown for public transit but far enough to be affordable on her salary. It was furnished with "gently loved" living and dining sets and she invested a small fortune in a gel foam double bed. It was her very first time living on her own and made her feel like a real adult. Actual factual career woman Felicity Smoak.

She spent a week getting to know her new city, practicing her bus route to work and shopping, visited the waterfront for siteseeing, experimented with the local cuisine for the best take out places near her. The art of cooking continued to elude her and she knew she would be relying heavily on the services of delivered meals.

Monday morning June 20th, 2011 Felicity stalked confidently up the steps of the sixty story modern marvel that was QC headquarters and reported to HR to get her picture taken and collect her ID badge. She attended orientation with six other new hires just as nervous and excited as she was. She watched safety videos and took workplace responsibility and confidentiality training. She signed papers promising not to discriminate against or sexually harass her peers or steal lunches from the breakroom (this was stressed with great importance. She suspected there had been issues in the past) She was assigned a shared office in the Information and Security Technology department on the 17th floor and was introduced to her boss and her immediate coworkers.

What she did not do was see or interact with a single member of the Queen Family.

Until Wednesday when Thea Queen threw herself in the chair opposite her desk. "You don't have a Facebook page."

Felicity's heart stuttered and her eyes bulged. She looked around her otherwise empty office in panic. "You can't be here! What are people going to think, the daughter of the CEO coming into my office?"

"That I'm here to ask you to do my homework," she shrugged.

"Why would they think that?"

"Duh. 'Cause I ask nerds in the IT department to do my homework all the time."

Felicity felt her face tighten in consternation. Thea rolled her eyes. "They say no. Mostly. You're not on Twitter either."

"Of course I'm not on Twitter, I'm a woman in STEM."

"What does that mean?"

"You don't want to know. Why are you here, Thea?"

"Because no one is talking to me! Ollie is pretending everything is normal and Mom and Dad are being assholes."

"Don't call your parents assholes!" Felicity whispered. The last thing she needed was to be caught badmouthing the owners on her first week on the job. Even if they had been somewhat...asshole-ish to her in the past. They had agreed, through Dig, for a strict pact of non-interference and she was trying to put that whole surreal weekend behind her.

"They're my parents, I can call them anything I want. I'm practically an adult, you know," Thea said archly.

"Exactly. 'Practically.' And you shouldn't be discussing this with me. Especially here."

"I just want to know what the heck is happening. No one is talking! Not to me, not to each other. Its like the whole..." she leaned forward conspiratorially, "soulmate-thing never happened."

Felicity thought for a minute. She couldn't have this conversation here, her co-workers could walk in at any moment. But did she really want to meet Thea outside work? She wouldn't encourage any kind of a relationship with Thea. No matter how charming she found the teenager.

"Give me your number. I'll call you, but this is a one time thing. You understand?"

Thea's triumphant smile reminded her of Moira, less the guile and subtly. This family would be the death of her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks for the kind encouragement. It really means the world to me. Here's the next chapter!

Felicity loved her new job. She loved getting to know the QC operating system, learning its intricacies, testing its limits, exploring its faults. She isolated systems, broke them down and rebuilt them, finding its weaknesses reveling in its power.

Within two weeks she had created more than a dozen necessary patches and reworked large sections of the base code.

She felt proud, accomplished. Even if most of her work seemed invisible.

Of course, there was more to her job than pure software engineering. As the junior member of the team she was also responsible for tech tickets and IT support. In this capacity she also learned new and innovative ways to tell people to pay for your porn and watch it at home. Seriously, so. much. Porn.

She arrived early and left late. She started to build a reputation for competence and innovation. Other members of the department began bringing particularly difficult problems to her. She had so many ideas for improvement her head practically spun.

Foremost of which was her baby. 

Her program, her thesis project. It had generated a lot of heat, and no small interest at MIT. And it could completely revolutionize security and functionality for not just QC’s corporate systems, but if it could be condensed and mass produced, for their product lines.

But how did a twenty year old untested new hire tell that to corporate veterans in a fortune 500 company?

Turns out blurting it out to your immediate supervisor and HIS supervisor was probably not the best method. Every senior member of her department had a hand in creating that system and an investment in keeping the status quo. Understandably so, she admitted grudgingly. Their job security depended on it .

Her concept was a long term investment that would change the very core processing system QU was run on. It didn’t matter that Felicity knew she was right, she would have to prove that at every level. And she would. With time.

She pretended she didn’t know that would mean an extended commitment of her time and unequivocally tie her future to Queen Consolidated for years to come.

For now she was content with earning her place among the rank and file employees. That meant luncheons and committees and potlucks. Knowing her limitations meant she kept her contributions to sodas and store bought desserts. But she liked her co-workers and enjoyed the camaraderie they shared. QC really felt like a family company.  
Which brought her back to the real Queen family. For the most part she was able to push her knowledge of her soulmate and his place in her future to background noise,mentally bothersome but avoidable with effort.

Five weeks in she was tested on that resolve not by efforts of the Queen matriarch, or even his persistent little sister but by sheer proximity. After all, she worked for Queen Consolidated and Oliver Queen was a establishing himself in his leadership role.

Including delivering the keynote speech for their quarterly department meeting. They had gathered in a fourth floor conference room that looked surprisingly like the college lectern classrooms Felicity had just left behind, with tiered seating looking down on a podium with a large video screen backdrop.

Her stomach was in knots the entire day in what could have been dread or anticipation. She sat in the third row, the first two taken by a large section of attractive young professionals in their business formal best. Felicity gave every effort at not hearing their speculation on the Queen scion’s newly single status and their prospects for personally changing that. It made her feel like she had a spotlight pointed at her, one that no one but she could see. If that made sense.

After a slightly too enthusiastic introduction by Caitlin in business liaisons, Oliver stepped onto the stage. His eyes found hers seemingly without trying. He blinked, twice, hard. He seemed surprised at her new blonde hair and pastel yellow dress. She could sympathise. He was wearing a very well tailored suit in light grey. She noticed the way he unconsciously smoothed his hand over his right hip and purposely moved her hand away from her own soulmate mark, clasping her hands in her lap.

The invisible spotlight felt very very hot all of a sudden.

Then he spoke and couldn’t have shocked her more. Gone was the sullen and smirking boy she had met months ago. He was confident and articulate. He spoke made eye contact and engaged the audience, speaking contemporaneously, hardly referencing his notes except in passing.

He highlighted their accomplishments and introduced the goals for the future. It was surprisingly inspiring. He was a natural leader.

Felicity hardened her heart with effort. She wasn’t looking to be led. Not now, not ever.

But she was still impressed.

It was with this mix of emotions that she finally relented to meeting Thea. She chose a public spot, a popular greasy spoon not far from her apartment where it wouldn’t feel weird to meet up with a teenage girl.

“Big Belly Burger, nice choice!” Thea announced as she slid into the booth opposite Felicity. “This is Dig’s favorite restaurant.”

“I know. He introduced me to this place.”

“So you ARE interacting with the family!”

Felicity smiled at Thea’s inclusion of Dig in the family. The Queens did have some points in the win column.

“Yes, he’s been helping me out, making sure I’m settling into Starling nicely. He’s very protective.”

Thea’s eyes turned inward as she groaned at some memory. “I know. Anyway, if you are talking to him why not Ollie or anyone else in the family?

“I’m not avoiding your family, Thea. I’m just not ready to be a part of it.”

“But why? Ollie is your soulmate! You are meant to be together!”

Felicity didn’t know what to say in the face of such unbridled enthusiasm. She had never been a particularly romantic person. Give her a problem to solve and she threw herself at it. Interpersonal relationships had been too...fraught. Better left for some ephemeral future.

“You sound like my mother.”

“Awesome. Your mother is cool.”

Felicity smiled again. “Yeah, she is.”

“I don’t get it. I’m gonna Register as soon as I turn eighteen.” Thea’s eyes turned dreamy.

“I’m glad. We all should get to choose where to find our happiness. Including me. And Oliver. Sometime in the very distant future. Right now I am twenty years old and just starting my life. I want a career. My own identity. I’m not going to throw that all away producing an heir and a spare.Can you understand that, Thea?”

Thea snorted. “God. That would suck. OK. I get it. Sorta. But you are not getting away with pretending to be a stranger.”

Felicity felt a warmth spread into her heart. She had never been pursued before. Always too young or too smart, she had trouble fitting in, even at the most prestigious school in America. She liked the feeling.

“Deal.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Worked hard on this one, even went back and watched a few season one episodes to get the character voices right. Hope I captured them. I was excited to write this scene. Even though this is Felicity's story I have tried make Oliver a presence in every chapter even if he wasn't physically there, so this was my chance to introduce him. Enjoy!

Felicity fidgeted nervously in the her seat outside Walter Steele’s office. She had been notified by messenger to meet at his office at her earliest availability, work permitting. Those had been the exact words, as if any work was more important than a summons from QC’s legendary Chief Financial Officer.She had made a quick stop in to the women’s restroom to adjust her high tight ponytail and examine her teeth for errant bits of food or lipstick, then made her way directly to his office thirty stories above her own on the 17th floor.

She racked her brain for reasons why he had asked to meet her. Visions of being fired three months into her first job danced across her mind. Had she committed any fireable offenses? She could be very argumentative when she knew she was right. Which was almost always. 

God, what if she was here to wipe porn and malware off his computer? She didn’t want to see Walter Steele’s porn collection. By the time Cesar, his Executive Assistant indicated that she should enter she was in a near panic.

“Am I being fired? I am without a doubt the single most skilled member of your technical division. That’s including my so-called ‘supervisor’. Letting me go would be a major error for this company.”

“I agree. There is no question of you being fired, Ms. Smoak.”

“Oh. I assumed...when you brought me up here…”

“No, I know exactly how valuable you are Ms. Smoak. I myself do not have a particularly adept scientific mind, but I know raw talent when I see it. And you have an overabundance of it. I made Queen Consolidated the success it is today by harnessing that talent..”

“Oh. OK. Thats. That means a lot to me, coming from you, Mr. Steele. I’ve admired you for a long time.”

“Thank you. But now, you see, I have a dilemma.”

“How so?” Felicity asked.

“I have a genius on staff that single handedly created a program that could revolutionize our company, put us ahead of the pack and propel us into the next age of software innovation. And I don’t know that I can use it.”

He stood up and walk around the large oak desk to sit on the chair next to her.

“You hold twelve patents under the name Smoak Technologies. I would be a fool not to recognize what your genius and your creations could mean for QC’s future. But you also have nine months left of a one year contract, with no guarantee of an extension, no non compete clauses, nothing to protect us if you decide to take that genius elsewhere.”

He leaned forward and adjusted his tie, pausing to look Felicity directly in the eye. “This project, this undertaking, would be years in development. It would require to you step up and take lead, to commit years of your life to this company, this family. And I understand that the situation is...delicate.”

He gave her a gentle, knowing look.

He knew. He knew about her soulmate mark.

“Yes.” Oops, she had spoken aloud.

“The Queens are not just business partners to me, Felicity. I consider them to be close personal friends. They shared with me the details of your situation.”

Felicity felt frozen, immobile. What he was telling her was her dream, the goals she had worked for all her life. And it would only cost her the rest of her life.

“Not so long as all that, my dear. And you may find, someday, that bonding with your soulmate appeals rather than more than the prison sentence you seem to view it is now, in your youth and inexperience.”

Felicity started at her hands, grasped tightly together in her lap. “Do they know you are talking to me? The Queens? Oliver?”

“Yes. It was my idea, though. I understand the initial contact with you to be rather… heavy-handed.”

She snorted at the understatement.

“What I am proposing is a business partnership, a true partnership. You would retain control 51% of Smoak Technologies. With the option to merge, if ever you so choose.”

The implication hung heavy for a moment.

“And QC would develop and implement your creation.”

***

Felicity stayed late into that night, rewiring an essential server tower that had been sorely neglected. The challenge calmed her mind and diverted her attention, a much needed respite for her sea of troubles.

She jumped a foot in the air when the silence was broken.

“Felicity.”

She spun at the sound of her name. Oliver stood before her, his suit jacket unbuttoned, his tie loose. He looked like the cover of GQ magazine.

“Hi. Uh, Oliver. Hi.”

After months of carefully avoiding him, she felt a strange sense of relief at his presence, like when finally remembering a long forgotten task.

“I thought it was time we talked.”

Throwing her hands in the air, she twirled around and stalked to her desk at the back of the server room. She sat in the chair there and indicated the one opposite. He was right. She had put this off this long enough.

“I spoke with Walter today. He told me about the offer.”

“Yeah. Big offer. Big decision.” She looked down awkwardly. Why was this so hard? Why was communicating with actual human beings so hard when she could code in eight languages?

“I faced one of those myself. Three years ago.”

She looked up at him, suddenly very interested in what he had to say.

“I was making a lot of bad decisions. Selfish decisions. And I know that I haven’t given you a lot of cause to believe that I’m not that person anymore. I was worked up on emotion when we met and I didn’t exactly put my best foot forward.”

“Only if your best foot is a spoiled momma’s boy.”

Oliver let out a small huff and shook his head.

“I like to think I’ve grown in the last three years, I’m not that person anymore.”

“What happened three years ago?”

“Dig knocked some sense into me. Literally.”

Felicity raised her eyebrows, curious.

"I, uh, got myself into a little into a little scrape. Fiance of a woman I...knew. He had his buddies rough me up. I decided to learn a little self defense. Dig offered to be my teacher. Learned more than I thought I would, training with him. Discipline. Clarity.”

She looked at him, eyes roaming his fit frame. “So, martial arts? That would explain all the muscles. That I did NOT notice!”

He laughed, a small smile. He had a nice smile.

“It was more than just the training. I lost my appetite for the life I led before. I wanted to be someone else. Something else.”

“Yeah. Your father.”

“Nooo. No I was just like my father before.” He admitted, continuing delicately,”I know you’ve been here a while. You must have heard the stories.”

Felicity held her tongue and let her silence speak for her. She had heard the stories. Of Robert Queen and his various infidelities. Of the quietly settled lawsuits. The running jokes that weren’t really that funny. Watch your ASSets when you turn your back on the CEO.

“Everyone thinks I decided to become like my father when I dedicated myself to the company, to finishing my degree. But I was more like him before. It was hard, admitting that. That I wasn’t as proud of my father as I wanted to be. That he didn’t deserve it.

“My parents, they were old school. Soulmates as partners, legacy before person. Dad had his father's steel and manufacturing business and Mom had her family’s money and good name. So they built this,” he said, he gestured, indicating the building around them.

“And they do love each other. They are bonded soulmates. Just… not the fairy tale kind.”

“And do you want that? The fairy tale?” She asked

“I want what every one wants. To be happy. And I spent a long time going about it the wrong way.”

“God you sound like such an adult. I have no idea what I want.”

“Yes you do. If there is one thing you have made abundantly clear it is what you want.”

And it was true. She wanted to create. She wanted to use her mind and her talent.

“And if I do this? If we do this?”

“As partners. Just that. Partners.”

“I can see that. See us. As a team. Oh and Oliver?”

“Yeah?”

“If you really want people to take you seriously? Cut that hair. You look like a bad guy in a gangster movie."

His laugh was genuine and rang deep into a part of herself she had never examined before.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks for all the kind words. Next Chapter is up!

“This is kidnapping, you know.”

“You got in the car willingly.” Thea says with a wily smile.

“Because Dig offered to drive me to work!” She threw a glare at Dig in the front seat. He winked at her in the rear view mirror. Betrayer.

“It’s Sunday!”

“What’s your point?”

Thea gave her a disbelieving start from under her giant Jackie O sunglasses. “On the seventh day we rest. Normal people take days off.”

“Pfft. Normal people aren’t building a new operating system from the ground up. You know I like my job, don’t you? Like I enjoy doing it. I think about it when I go home and can’t wait to get back to it.”

“So you agree that you’re abnormal?”

Felicity growled in frustration. There was no fighting with high schoolers. They fought dirty.

She peered out the windows trying to get an idea of where they were going. Asking had gotten her nowhere. They were now a half hour outside Starling, driving into the surrounding farmland and countryside. It was pretty. Very green. Lots of hills. Cows. Not a lot of clues there.

Dig slowed the vehicle and turned into a graveled drive. There was a wooden sign overhead that read Sherwood Stables. She read the name aloud, looking at Thea suspiciously. “Horses?”

“Yes! This is where my horse has been boarded since I was a kid. She’s a quarter horse, wait til you meet her. You have seen horses before, right?”

“Of course. I’m from Vegas. My mom took me to Helldorodo every year. She had a thing for cowboys.”

They parked in a lot a short walk from the stables and began the trek to where the horses were housed. Noticing Dig hanging back Felicity turned to him and asked, “Aren’t you coming?”

“Those things bite," He said dismissively. She pretended she didn’t notice him hiding a pack of cigarettes in his hand. They would talk about THAT later.

Thea practically vibrated with excitement as she led Felicity into the livery stable and a stall with a sleek chestnut horse. “This is Glory! Her full name is Queen’s Gracious Glory, because of course it is, Dad named her and he sticks his name on everything, but I just call her Glory. Isn’t she beautiful?”

Thea masterfully bridled her horse and led them to a large outdoor pen, gushing the entire time about Glory’s pedigree and attributes. She was just so young and happy Felicity couldn’t help but be swept up by her enthusiasm. She hung back as Thea exercised the animal, not dressed for the muddy ground. Thea’s boots and jeans soon became splattered and coated in the dark, wet soil, but she hardly seemed to notice. She was an expert handler and Glory was responsive and well behaved.

She talked a lot, told stories of her exploits riding. The time when she was ten when she fell off a horse and broke her arm. “Dad wouldn’t let me ride again for six months. It’s the only time he ever said no to me.”

Felicity tried not to roll her eyes at that. Oliver’s colorful youth spoke volumes for the permissiveness of their parents. 

“But Mom got him to change his mind. She used to ride when she was a girl. Of course I had to promise to stay in ballet for another two years.”

It was impossible not to be delighted in Thea. She was just so earnest, and delighted in showing Felicity something so outside the realm of her city dwelling roots. By far it was her best kidnapping to date, although she just admonished Thea that it would be her last. She’d had quite enough of that already.

“I knew you would have fun. You need to get out more, you’re turning into a basement dwelling nerd.”

“OK, that doesn't mean what you think it means, and I like being a nerd.”

“And I’m sure Ollie likes it too.”

“You are not as subtle as you think you are.”

“Ah, but I’m not trying to be subtle. How is my brother? How’s it going with him?”

“Third degree after we eat. It;s getting cold and you promised me brunch, not an interrogation surrounded by horse manure. It stinks here, and you are not wearing that in the car.” She indicated Thea’s filthy outfit.

“I brought a change of clothes, dummy. Just wait with Dig while I go change.”

“Deal. There’s something I want to discuss with him anyway,” She said, thinking of the cigarettes.

True to her word Thea slid into the car ten minutes later in a sheath dress and strappy heels under her winter coat as if she hadn’t just frolicked in the mud with a thousand pound quarter horse.

They drove to an trendy bistro in an upscale business park. Dig bowed out, claiming he had errands to run, leaving her alone with her interrogator. “Traitor.”

There was a line to be seated, understandably for 11 am on a Sunday, but the hostess knew Thea by name and quietly ushered them to a private booth in the back with stunning views of the pier. They were given coffee and a plate containing a variety of cheeses and pickled vegetables with a promise for someone to take their order shortly.

“Wow, I feel like a celebrity. Does this happen everywhere you go?”

“Only in Starling. We’re big fish small pond kinda famous. Hasn’t Ollie taken you out yet?”

“You know that I would say no if he did. Ooo, these are good. Pickles and cheese, it sounds like dorm food but this is fabulous.”

“You have to get the quiche. It’s the best I’ve ever had. Do you ever go out? Like out-out?”

“I’m not seeing anyone else Thea. We’re days away from the merger. I don’t have time for a social life.”

Thea groaned in frustration. “Why do you make this so hard? You and Oliver meant to be together.”

“You know he takes conference calls on the treadmill? Like exercises during business deals. And he thinks Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I think the universe may have overestimated our compatibility.”

“You wait, when it hits you you’ll eat those words.”

“I’ll settle for the eggs benedict.”

***  
Four days later and it was a done deal. They had hammered out the agreement and merged the companies. Felicity had been given twenty-four million dollars for 49% of Smoak Technologies, but most of that was invested right back into stock options in QC. It was a partnership, which went both ways.

There was champagne and fancy horderves, most of which the lawyers gobbled up. She got the idea that the bulk of their jobs in corporate law were pretty boring and celebrations like this were few and far between.

Robert gave a rousing speech about the brightness of their future and made the rounds shaking hands. He was very charming. Felicity had never forgotten her mother’s lessons, however. Charm was a verb.

Oliver wandered over to her and offered her a champagne flute. “Are you alright?”

“Yes. Just...A little overwhelmed. It’s really happening, you know?”

He gazed into her eyes. She ignored the zing it sent down her spine.

“I’m ready if you are.” He turned to face the room. “The journalist are here. Stick with Walter, follow the script. You’ll do fine.”

She didn’t feel so sure. She looked at the reporters with trepidation.

“They want to like you. Young genius climbs ladder to success. It’s a great story.”

“Better than billionaire scion pees on cop car?”

“Much.” His eyes were warm. She squared her shoulders and stepped up. Time to be an adult. The universe won’t know what hit IT>. 

He was right. The next day her picture was on the front page of every science site from Wired to Gizmodo. The industry was paying attention and she was going to blow them away.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter. I have incorporated an awful lot of time jumps but I feel its necessary to advance the story without being bogged down by exposition. I'll work on clarity in the future! Please enjoy!

That fall Felicity relocated to the 24th floor into spacious offices with attached labs. She meticulously built her new team with Walter Steele expert guidance. He had a true eye for potential and wasn’t overly impressed by ivy league pedigrees. She shared this judgement, despite her own education at MIT. They dug for talent at state schools, even poached some of the best and brightest engineers and software designers from small startups in the area. Starling had been slowly growing into the new Silicon Valley and QC had real cache’ at the moment, bolstered by a reputation for taking chances that paid off.

Smoak Technologies, a subsidiary of Queen Consolidated, began to design and build the first generation of their new, yet to be named product line with her creations the driving force.

As department head Felicity had been assigned her own executive assistant. Jerry was fastidious and loyal. He quickly made himself indispensable, acting as both gatekeeper and caretaker. He juggled her schedule, managed to protect her from unnecessary interruptions while simultaneously making her available to members of the team who needed her guidance and input.

He also ensured that she ate regular meals and attended to her health. And her appearance.

“I don’t mean to be that gay, but you need to do your roots.You look like the not-rich Real Housewife.

“I’ve created a personal style catalogue for you. Look through the links and click on the ones you want to buy.” 

He even shamed her out of sleeping on the very comfy overstuffed couch in her office, “These people need to look up to you as an inspiration, not emulate your unhealthy work habits. Go home. Come back in the morning showered and caffeinated.”

There were also a myriad of unanticipated problems that came with suddenly being promoted to the head of a new department. Older, established employees hid poorly disguised resentment. There were petty grudges and inside factions. 

Moira Queen became a not-unwelcome occasional visitor, massaging egos and making small, almost imperceptible suggestions that improved relations and helped keep an even keel. Felicity began to respect the diplomacy Moira had used so deftly against her.

It was a glimpse of the secret magic that the elder Queens had harnessed in their marriage, the combined talents that make their company the household name it was. They were a team, his business acumen and her sheer force of personality. Their soulmate status made a lot more sense after seeing them in action.

She had seen the potential for this, this mix of personal and professional aptitude, in Oliver as well. He seemed the perfect blend of both his parents.

Until he suddenly became powerfully and inexplicably irritating. Stubborn and abrasive, and wrong wrong wrong. At every meeting he made inane suggestions, gave idiotic advice. He was just low level aggro in every interaction and no one but her could see it!

“I am not overreacting! You are sabotaging our brand line before we can even start principal production!”

“It’s not sabotage to reach out to female consumers! It’s what you’ve been hammering us about this whole time!”

“Hot pink casings are not the magic bullet to the female customer, Oliver!”

“Market testing shows-”

“You can’t ‘market test’ an entire gender! Hot pink is the Paris Hilton of colors!”

“Pink is hot right now-”

“And you even sound like Paris Hilton!”

She was standing on a chair in the now almost empty conference room, scattered product samples littering the table.

She wasn’t crazy. She had climbed on the chair for a reason. He was just so tall! His height was an unfair advantage. The point was, it wasn’t crazy, she thought as she stared down at him for once.

“But you WANT pink! You’re wearing pink right now!” He gestured to her shoes.

“But not hot pink! It’s early aughts! As In the past. Soft pink, petal pink, peachy-pink! Revolutionary pink for our revolutionary new handheld device!”

“Revolu-! Are you even listening to yourself?”

“How could you tell, with your head this far up your ass?”

In the end he threw up his arms and skulked out the room and she signed off on soft, petal, peachy pink. Not that they called it that. A team of marketing specialists decided on Blush.

In the end, Moira swept in and smoothed over the rough edges and Jerry made her go take a spa day. She was pampered and color corrected, her nails and toes painted a defiant blush pink.

She absolutely did not revel in her victory.

Conflicts aside, they barreled forward and set a hard launch date of April 2nd. Oliver wanted April 1st, the first day of the second quarter, but that was right out. They couldn’t release the line on April Fools Day. Think of all the stupid puns! Just another example of his infuriatingly poor judgement.

By the time holiday season came into full swing she had learned to stop dreading Moira’s occasional visits. She had been respectful of Felicity’s boundaries and an invaluable resource as she established herself as a leader.

“I won’t take up too much of your time, dear, I know how busy you are. I’ve simply come to personally invite you to the Queen family annual Christmas party. It’s a long tradition for us and department heads traditionally attend.”

Moira handed her an invitation on expensive cardstock and smiled at her expectantly.

“I’m Jewish.”

“I’m aware.” She caught Felicity’s eyes as she leaned forward conspiratorially, “And you needn’t worry about any… personal connotations. Oliver will be bringing a date.”

“Oh.” Felicity looked down at the invitation in her hand. The four members of the Queen family smiled toothily at her, dressed in festive holiday colors.

“Yes,” She continued casually, “He’s reconnected with an old college friend. McKenna.They’ve been seeing each other for a few weeks now. This will be their first public appearance.”

Felicity remained silent.

“Yes. You would be invited strictly on a professional basis. I do hope you attend.”

Felicity nodded silently.

“I’ll leave you to your work. I know I’ve told you this before, but I continue to be impressed with your efforts, Felicity. With you at the helm I envision a long and fruitful partnership. Professionally, I mean.”

Gripped by some unknown paralysis, Felicity could only continue to nod. She crumpled the invitation into the garbage can after Moira left.

She decided to spend the holidays with her mother in the end. Not for any particular reason. She just missed her.

And if she followed the gossip sites in her spare hours, well, she had spent plenty of holidays in Vegas, it got a little boring after a while. 

The Queen family Christmas party was covered with breathless veneration by more than a few sites. Oliver wore a tux. She had no opinion on that. At all.

Nor his new girlfriend. She was pretty, accomplished. Had studied law and just passed the bar. Nice girl, bright future. Nothing to see here. Felicity had years ahead of her before she wanted anything resembling marriage or commitment. And so did Oliver.

She returned to Starling on the 26th with a new resolve to be patient with Oliver’s juvenile behavior at work. She was, after all, the mature one.

They met infrequently in January, Oliver working on the 2012 business projections and her concentrating on completing the software alterations necessary to go public. In the few occasions he attended budgeting sessions she gritted her teeth and she listened to his input. Her reactions were measured and reasonable, the very picture of cool professionalism.

A few weeks later when Oliver’s relationship fizzled out he suddenly became more much more agreeable. Just went to show that he wasn’t mature enough for an adult relationship.

Some people couldn’t manage work life balance.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello, new chapter. Please enjoy and lemme know what you think, anything you are particularly wishing to see. I take comments and criticism gladly!

“Oliver is in really good shape. Like really good.” Barry Allen, Felicity’s newest R & D liaison nudged her to get her attention.

“Hmm?”

“You saw that right? The biceps?”

“I dunno, I wasn’t really paying attention.” She said with studied casualness. In truth she had been paying a lot of attention when Oliver stepped into the lab in his basketball shorts and tight sleeveless tee. He had ostensibly come to pick up the latest data on processing speeds, claiming he would be reading them at the executive gym on his floor. This was the second time he had showed up in gym clothes this week alone, always, coincidentally when she was with Barry.

“He works out a lot. For a corporate guy.” Barry was speaking idly, not really paying attention to Felicity’s answers. She wasn’t really in the mood to talk about Oliver’s recent penchant for dropping by in his workout gear, bulging muscles on display.

“Casual Friday on a Wednesday. Does that make it Workout Wednesday? Makes more sense than Hump Day” He shrugged, paging through the latest readout.

Felicity squirmed uncomfortably in the chair next to him, her mind racing for something, anything to change the subject. 

“Speaking of soulmates, any word from Iris?”

“We were talking about soulmates?” He asked, brows furrowed.

“Um. What? No. Yes?” Felicity forced a laugh.

Barry let out a defeated sounding sigh. “Sorry. It just feels like I’m always justifying why I’m not curled up in a fetal ball crying my heart out, you know? Like, I know I initially moved to Starling to meet my soulmate, but I love my job...I’m good at it.”

He shook his head, ”Everyone keeps patting me on the back and congratulating me for my courage. Like I have a choice or something. Do you know how many people have told me to ‘hang in there, big guy?' I’m not a big guy, Felicity. Not like Oliver. I am tall, though.”

She laughed at his self effacing humor. “Well, you’ve been a godsend to me. It’s been so good to have someone I can communicate with.”

It was true. Barry was had become an invaluable resource in the two months she had known him. He was lighting fast and smart as a whip. She could trust him to understand her rambling non sequiturs and run with her ideas with his own ingenious twist. They were a great team.

“I’m sure Iris will come around. You’re perfect, Barry.”

He grinned at her. “I’m sure she’ll ditch her devastatingly handsome and successful boyfriend for me any minute.”

He said this lightly, with humor, not bitterness, which was one of the things she loved about Barry. He had been elated to be matched by the Registry, uprooted his life and moved from his childhood home in Central City, taking a job at QC in order to be closer to her. And when they finally met and she told him she was in a relationship he had respected her choice and kept his distance. But it was obvious to Felicity that he was hurting.

“Carrie in security keeps telling me I have to fight for her. Like, how do I do that? How do I fight Iris for Iris?”

“Huh. Now I’m picturing you and Iris in a boxing ring with those huge gloves on.” She leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder.

“That reminds me, you know Oliver asked me if I wanted to train with him? Like his martial arts training? I can’t tell if he was serious. He was pretty intense about it.”

“I’m sure he was just messing with you.” Felicity deflected. She squeezed his arm and returned to the reports they were reviewing.

“Yeah.” He seemed to be trying to convince himself, “Yeah.”

***  
February had flown by and with it a slurry of deadlines and last minute fixes. They were two weeks from mass production and the atmosphere in the Smoak Technologies wing swung from harried desperation to giddy excitement.

Near the end of the month they gathered in a large glass walled presentation room, the heads and senior members of all the major departments seated around the rectangular table. Felicity was situated between Barry and Moira Queen, waiting for the day’s big announcement.

Oliver was presenting the finished marketing material, finalizing the long delayed name for their line of mobile devices. QC had been a third run also-ran behind Iphones and Androids for the past three years. Today they were announcing the name of their own co-created line to change all that. 

Oliver strode confidently into the room, poster board tucked under his arm. He was wearing his fitted dark grey suit paired with a white shirt and narrow emerald tie. The phrase ‘bespoke suit’ ran through Felicity’s mind, but that wasn't what gave her pause. He had shorn his long, messy locks, sporting a short, almost military cut.

It was distracting. She remembered telling him to cut his hair all those months ago. The whole look gave him an older, more professional bearing. It suited him well.

He met her eyes and raised his chin, grinning widely. 

“Sorry I’m late. I was waiting for visual aides from marketing.” He gestured, indicating the large the sign under his arm, adjusting the tripod at the head of the table.

“We’re used to it, Mr Queen,” George Dunham, the dour head of Accounting said, “I think we’ve waited long enough. Just tell us what we’re naming the damn phone already.”

There were subtle nods of agreement across the table, and Felicity had to agree. She and Oliver had fought over the name for their joint project for four months. She was upset that he had announced the final decision had been made without her input, but was looking forward to putting the argument to bed. She could always rename the next gen if she hated it.

He turned the poster board to them with a flourish, “Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce you to Verdant, Queen Consolidated’s handheld device line that is going to revolutionize security and capacity, available for purchase April 2nd, 2012. The poster was printed in glossy green with markups of the phone and tablet gleaming metallically under the Queen Consolidated banner.

Verdant. Verde. Green. The words echoed through her mind, her breath catching in shock. Her right hand twitched, the urge to cover her soulmark powerful and immediate.

She followed the rest of the meeting with half a mind, knowing it was important, that slogans, television and print ads were being decided around her without her joining in on the debate. 

Verdant. It felt like a portent, like Oliver had thrown a gauntlet down in her path.

She left the meeting in a fog, avoiding Oliver’s defiant gaze. He was challenging her, but rather than raise to it she was running scared.

In her office she rushed straight to her private bath and stared forlornly at her reflection. Her head was spinning. She slowly lifted her blouse and pulled down her skirt to gaze at her soulmark.

Green, various shades from light to dark; a crown made of arrows; an abacus. God, it was so literal. Absurdly so.

What was Oliver playing at? She knew he was sending her a message, felt it in eyes and his words and in this stupid, ornate brand on her hip. Had something changed? Had he changed when her back was turned, consumed by her life’s work come to fruition?

There was a faint knock on her door. Lowering her top she marshalled her face into a mask of indifference.

Moira Queen greeted her with a kind, knowing smile. “I think it’s time we talked.”  
“


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who gave me a heads up about the errors in the previous chapter! And I see you @ekinham *wink wink*
> 
> Appreciate the feedback and speculation. I've been wanting to write this chapter for so long, here it is!

Felicity thought she knew what Moira wanted to discuss. Oliver’s stunt had ended the fragile embargo on soulmate negotiations, and she was here to advocate his cause. It was with resigned trepidation that she stepped out of her bathroom to face her. 

Instead Moira gave her a kind smile, her eyes soft. She gestured for Felicity to follow her, sitting primly on the comfortable couch against the wall of her office, adjusting the skirt of her dress under her. Her face was calm and warm. Felicity had the sudden insight that she was seeing the woman Oliver and Thea did when they looked at their mother. It was strangely familiar and comforting. 

“There’s something I think you need to see, Felicity.” Moira said as Felicity sat stiffly beside her. She shifted the cap sleeve of her dress to the side and pushed it down her arm, exposing a bright blue design on the ball of her shoulder. Her soulmark.

Felicity inhaled sharply, stunned by the intimacy of the gesture.

Moira looked down at her own mark fondly. A pair of cupped hands from which a building, a tall art deco style skyscraper rose.

It was beautiful. Her eyes wide she silently met Moira’s warm gaze with wonder. Why was she showing her this? They had forged a sort of a quiet truce, true, but they were hardly friends of the caliber that sharing your soulmark might be expected.

“I know what people say about Robert and I. That our bond is a meeting of the minds. That we were joined to forge this,” she gestured to the building around them, “That Queen Consolidated was why we were meant to be together. They sees this and think of an empire, a marriage of business interests alone.

"While there is some truth to that, Felicity, dear, I know better. I know that this,” She tapped her mark, “Is the exact shade of blue of Oliver’s eyes.”

Felicity’s eyes fell back to Moira’s soulmark. It was true.

“We were destined for each other for our children, Robert and I. Our relationship, I know, is not the romantic ideal. I’m not a fool. He has not always… respected our bond.” Moira looked away for a moment, clearly struggling. “But there is love there. Perhaps not enough, not for what I needed, for what Robert needed, but always for Oliver and Thea.” She finished fiercely.

She grasped her hands together and ran them down the length of her thighs, lost in thought for a moment. Felicity stayed silent, unsure how to react. She had never been comfortable discussing the romantic or intimate nature of soul bonds, not even with her own mother. She had seen Donna’s soulmate mark, of course. Many times. A cluster of bubbles in which reflection was an old fashioned calculator. They had never talked about it though, not after her father left. Donna always told her she was allergic to emotions. Not harshly though, and she had respected Felicity’s reluctance to talk about it.

“My parents met late in life. This was before the Registry became mandatory. I suppose they decided to let it up to fate. To tradition.”

Felicity bent forward to listen, intrigued. The Queens had always been reserved to the point of secrecy. Their life was so far removed from her own experiences, growing up with a single mother living paycheck to paycheck, she never expected a glimpse of that life. Or that her curiosity would be sated any time soon. 

“My mother was in her forties when I was born. Her miracle baby, she said. They were from old houses, very conservative and very rich. When Robert and I were matched they observed the old traditions, rigidly so. Formal negotiations, our first kiss was on our wedding night.”

She tilted her head, thoughtful. “Perhaps if we had your courage, the courage to say ‘no’ things would be different.”

Felicity reached over and grasped Moira’s hand. She had always seemed so steely and reserved. Seeing her this vulnerable made her heart ache. Moira smiled gratefully and continued, “But I regret nothing. Our marriage has brought so much more than the material wealth everyone expected of us. Of this mark.”

Felicity looked at Moira's shoulder again with a new appreciation. The building was complex and rigid, but the hands cradling it were delicate.

“You, my dear, are part of that legacy, and I know now that I took the wrong approach, emulated my own parents in the worst way. I was.... Too strident, to much my mother’s daughter. My greatest sorrow is that my parents didn’t live long enough to meet Thea. I was, perhaps, too afraid that would happen to Oliver. That in his youthful rebellion he would push his soulmate away and leave it too late. "I thought to control the outcome. That was my folly, though. I don’t want to see it to be yours. Yours or Oliver’s.”

“Is that what he’s doing now? Controlling our outcome? With this Verdant thing?” Felicity was almost afraid of the answer. 

“No. If anything his behavior is patently reactionary.” She squeezed Felicity’s hand still grasped in hers. “This thing. With Barry.”

Felicity recoiled. “What thing with Barry?” She asked defensively.

“Peace, dear I mean nothing unseemly. But Oliver definitely senses something, even though he won’t admit it.”

“Is that why he’s peacocking all over the place? Flexing his muscles and asking Barry to fight him? Because he’s jealous? Is that why he did what he did today?” She asked, offended.

“I wouldn’t go so far to say jealous. But soulmates know, Felicity. I’ve always known. When Robert’s mind or heart was untrue. And," she continued with a gentle voice, "I recall you yourself were out of sorts not so long ago. When Oliver tried to pursue that girl.” Moira grimaced with distaste at the memory. She had made no effort to conceal what she thought of her son’s relationship with McKenna.

Felicity thought about it, really thought back to her rollercoaster emotions before Moira revealed that Oliver was seeing someone.

“You once harangued him for ten minutes on the way he ate his bagel. I didn’t mention it at the time. You were terribly productive. Redesigned the battery that very night, doubled the life expectancy if I remember correctly.”

Felicity bristled at the memory. That wasn’t fair. He ripped pieces off the bagel whole and dipped them in the cream cheese like an animal! Like he was eating chips! You slice the bagel and spread the - She stopped when she saw her hands clawed out and demonstrating the correct method. She looked at Moira’s amused expression and blushed. She had spoken aloud without intending again.

“I’m not involved with Barry. He’s just a friend.”

“I am confident of that, Felicity. But Oliver?”

If Felicity was honest with herself, really honest, she knew that Moira was right. Hadn’t she thought many times how convenient it would be if she had been paired with Barry? That it would be so easy, that he wouldn’t be pining after Iris, that she wouldn’t be challenged emotionally or physically by Oliver and his complex mind and handsome face? That she would be free of all the conflicting emotions he brought up within her?

“So, what, Oliver sensed a disturbance in the force? And now he’s all grrr?”

Moira laughed gently at the suggestion, shaking her head.

But Felicity remembered that feeling of offness, that vague sense of internal turmoil she couldn’t pinpoint or name when Oliver had been involved with McKenna. She remembered the invisible relief she had felt when they broke up, an easing of an unknown anxiety she didn’t even know had been there.

“Does he.... Does he want something? With me, I mean?”

“I’m not here to tell you that. I shall commit myself to a strict policy of noninterference.” 

Felicity refrained herself from asking if this conversation was considered interference. It was a petty impulse. She knew Moira had been honest with her in a way that must be unimaginatively difficult.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“Whatever you want.” Moira said decisively.

“Oh, I can do that. That I am very good at.”

Moira rose, pulling Felicity to her feet as she did so. They didn’t hug, although there was a hint of an impulse. She wished her well in a rather formal way and left Felicity to her racing thoughts.

***  
The next morning she brought bagels to the advertising meeting. Pre-halved of course. She wasn’t a monster. Oliver grinned suggestively at her as he spread cheese on his with a butter knife.

She ignored him and sorted the mock ads. They were going to print in two days and much was still to be decided.

***


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thanks for all the encouragement! New chapter up!

“Felicity. We're going to be late. Let it go.”

She looked down at the schematics splayed out before her. She just needed a minute, there was something about the interface, something just at the edge of her conscious. A problem she couldn’t name and a solution she knew was there if she could just concentrate.

“Felicity, it can wait. We have to leave. Now. We had to leave ten minutes ago." Oliver led her by the elbow away from the drafting table, steering her out of the lab.

“Whose fault is that? I was ready half an hour ago.” She grabbed the blueprints and her handbag behind her as Oliver escorted her to the elevator, his hand on her upper back.

“And you could have left then if you had a car.” he guides her into the elevator and pushes the button for the garage sublevel. “You’re a millionaire now, how do you not own a car?”

“I’d need a driver’s license for that.” She says primly, noticing she was still wearing her lab coat in the mirrored doors. Oh well, she might keep it on. Government contractors responded to that kind of authority, right? Beneath it she wore a red fit and flare dress with gold maryjanes. Not bad. Stylish but commanding respect.

She glanced at Oliver's reflection. His mouth was open in surprise. “You don’t have a license? You’re an adult, how do you not have a driver’s license?”

“I dunno, you’re an adult, how do you still live at home with your parents?” She shrugged.

Oliver did that thing where he furrowed his eyebrows. She smiled up at him.

“Until Thea graduates. I told you that.”

“Mmm hmmm.” She stared innocently up at him. He almost smiled. Almost.

“How did you not get a license when you moved to Starling?”

“I got a state ID. Like I had in Massachusetts." 

They had exited the elevator and made their way to a late model Audi. Oliver paused at the driver’s side door, “Wait. You do know how to drive, don’t you?” he asked skeptically.

“Sure. In theory. Video games count, right?”

He stared at her for a moment before making a decision. “Right. You’re driving.” He tossed her the keys and moved to the passenger side door.

Felicity stared at the keys in her hand, then met his challenging stare. She shrugged and opened the door, sliding behind the steering column and searched for the ignition. Oliver leaned into her space and pushed a large round button. The car started with a low, deep rumble.

“Huh. Cool. You know, I kinda thought you’d have something flashier. A red Ferrari, something ostentatious.”

“Yellow. But not for everyday commute. How have you never driven before?”

“I have. My mom’s old Hyundai. But I moved to Boston right after my sixteenth birthday and lived on campus. And we have a surprisingly good public transportation system here in Starling.”

“I know. My grandfather built it.”

She glanced at him, surprised. “Your grandfather built the subway system? I didn’t know that. I mean it’s not called Queen Commute or whatever.”

“That was back when the company was called Pacific Steel and Manufacturing. Dad changed the name to Queen Consolidated when he and Mom married. He’s the one that slaps the family name on everything.”

“And you? Do you expect me to take your name? And what if I hyphenate? Felicity Smoak-Queen. Ugh, I’d sound like a villain in a comic book.”

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“No!”

“Then put the car in reverse and drive.”

Oliver turned out to be a good teacher. He didn’t panic and try to grab the wheel like her mother had all those years ago, just calmly directed her to pay attention to her environment and accelerate into the turn. In short order they had exited the city limits and were on the less populated suburban highway on the way to Queen manor.

“It smells great in here. What air freshener do you use?” The air in the car smelled amazing, like fresh ocean breezes but also masculine woodiness. She wanted to bottle it up and carry it with her everywhere.

Oliver shrugged. “You’d have to ask the grounds crew. I don’t wash it.”

“You have a crew that washes your car for you?”

“We have people that do everything for us, Felicity.”

“Huh. Still, I would miss car washes. It's so relaxing, with the rainbow soap and roller balls. Almost hypnotic. You’re missing out. I loved car washes when I was a kid.”

“Turn here, this is our exit. And I’ll think about it. If I need to relax, that is.”

“Why are we meeting at Queen Manor anyway? Government officials meeting at your home, isn’t that a little strange?”

“Dad always met public figures at the manor. Negotiate from a place of strength and all that. I guess they just expect it, now.”

There were two men waiting for them in a conference room elegantly decorated with wood and glass accents. On the wall hung a large screen that Felicity accessed wirelessly with her tablet as Oliver greeted the men with warm deference. One was dressed in a black suit and shiny shoes and looked the very cliche of an FBI agent, the other in brownish fatigues, stars decorating his collar. Oliver clearly knew them and she left him to the small talk as she prepared the presentation.

“Well, little lady, we’re ready to hear about your hack-proof thingy-majig.” The one in the fatigues said, waving his hands and settling in a chair around the dark mahogany table. 

Oliver placed a staying hand on her shoulder, “Ms. Smoak is far from a 'little lady', General Eiling. She is a certified genius and her creation, Verdant, is going to revolutionize the way we communicate safely and securely.”

The meeting went smoothly after the rather unpleasant beginning, Felicity extolled the power of her software to protect against attacks, the unparalleled space capacity and battery life Verdant offered while Oliver charmed two officious men when she fell into technical jargon. The cost of launching a new line had the company severely cash strapped. A contract with the army and/or federal government meant guaranteed income. This meeting had been profoundly important and they had nailed it, working together in unpracticed harmony.

When General “Sexist Asshole” Eiling and FBI Under Secretary Liang left, it was with handshake deals and plans to send the contracts to legal.

Felicity was elated. She would never admit to it but she had been fearing this meeting, afraid that they would take one look at her, all of twenty and a woman to boot and disregard her as unserious, her creation as unworthy. Oliver had been her staid defender, but not condescendingly so. They had worked in perfect step to the desired outcome.

She looked about the family room they now retired too, all rich brown leather and giant big screen television. Oliver had shed his black suit coat and unknotted his tie. A woman of middle years had caressed his cheek as she delivered them a bottle of Prosecco and a collection of homemade treats to celebrate.

Would this be her life, then? Business deals in her expansive mansion, celebrating with expensive wines and food cooked by paid staff? Would they ascend the stairs together, triumphant or retreat to separate rooms? For the first time Felicity wasn’t afraid to ask herself these questions, though she was far from ready to ask Oliver.

She watched him savor the tiny cheese filled dumplings and sparkling wine and wondered.

***

April 2nd was a Monday. Felicity woke that morning early and drove herself to work in her new Mini Cooper. It wasn’t the flashiest but she found it adorable and fuel efficient. It even had a convertible top, in the event the sun ever shone in Starling.

She arrived at the Smoak Tech floor at six in the hopes of beating the rush. There was a crowd waiting for her, huddled around a monitor in the lab adjacent to her desk. They cheered when they saw her, Barry foremost among them.

“So. Good news?” She beamed at her team. She had seen the news reports that night. People had lined up outside stores ready to buy Verdant phones and tablets the moment the stores opened. The east coast has been buzzing with activity as people raced to be seen using them.

Barry embraced her, follow by six or seven other scientists and engineers. Today was their day.

Felicity basked in the warm glow of their accomplishment that day. There were telephone and video interviews, congratulations and celebrations.

Near to midnight her phone chirped with yet another notification. This one was different though. It rang with a somber note, different from her regular ringtone. She pulled it out with dread.

TMZ’s headlines screamed at her.

“Felicity Smoak’s embarrassing past uncovered! Shots of the tech impresario’s near death experience at college frat party!”

There were pictures. She spent weeks scouring the web and personal devices of her Allergy-Goth internet fame, deleting all evidence. Apparently some got past her and were posted for the world to see. She seethed as the hit count rose. There was no fixing this now.


End file.
